James Elwyn Stanton

Dacotah Blood James Elwyn Stanton

The Dakota War of 1862 Dacotah as it was spelled then. AKA The Sioux Uprising. America's most forgotten Indian War. Hundreds of movies have been made about the battles between the troops of the US Army and the warriors of the Plains Indians but none were ever made about this war or these battles. The now bucolic countryside of southwestern Minnesota doesn't seem to be a proper setting for an Indian War. How could anything heroic, or bloody, ever have happened there? Yet there was a war there. A bloody one. Over a hundred white soldiers were killed in action. Only the Battle of the Little Big Horn had more casualties. Hundreds of white settlers were killed, most of them murdered in cold blood. The number of Dakota Indians who died during the war is unknown, but those who died afterwards-executed in the biggest mass hanging in US history and confined in prison camps and forced onto wretched reservations, runs well into the hundreds. Much blood was spilled, both white and red, still little note has been taken of the carnage. Dacotah Blood is one modern man's search for the truth behind stories his Great Aunt told him about "The Uprising" when he was a child. A search for his ancestors. Ancestors whose lives were intertwined with the Dakota War. Though he didn't know that when he began searching. His search spans more than 30 years. It takes him along a winding frustrating path with many dead ends and detours. Some of his childish questions are answered, but for each question answered a new more vexing question is raised. He needs a lot of help to find the truth. Murder and blood are at the source of that truth. But finding that bloody truth is not enough. He must do something about that long-hidden truth once he has found it.